Reply to Comment on: "Are stress-free membranes really 'tensionless'?"

This is a reply to a comment on the paper arXiv:1204.2075 "Are stress-free membranes really tensionless ?" (EPL 95,28008 (2011))

Local structure in nematic and isotropic liquid crystals

By computer simulations of systems of ellipsoids, we study the influence of the isotropic/nematic phase transition on the direct correlation functions (DCF) in anisotropic fluids. The DCF is determined from the pair distribution function by solving the full Ornstein-Zernike equation, without any approximations. Using a suitable molecular-fixed reference frame, we can distinguish between two qualitatively different contributions to the DCF: One which preserves rotational invariance, and one which breaks it and vanishes in the isotropic phase. We find that the symmetry preserving contribution is barely affected by the phase transition. However, symmetry breaking contributions emerge in the nematic phase and may become quite substantial. Thus the DCF in a nematic fluid is not rotationally invariant. In the isotropic fluid, the DCF is in good agreement with the prediction of the Percus-Yevick theory.Comment: to appear in J. Chem. Phy

The Dirac propagator in the Kerr-Newman metric

We give an alternative proof of the completeness of the Chandrasekhar ansatz for the Dirac equation in the Kerr-Newman metric. Based on this, we derive an integral representation for smooth compactly supported functions which in turn we use to derive an integral representation for the propagator of solutions of the Cauchy problem with initial data in the above class of functions. As a by-product, we also obtain the propagator for the Dirac equation in the Minkowski space-time in oblate spheroidal coordinates.Comment: 29 pages, modifications in the abstract and in the introduction, small improvements in section 2.

Spectropolarimetry of the borderline Seyfert 1 galaxy ESO 323-G077

We report the detection of high linear polarization in the bright Seyfert 1 galaxy ESO 323-G077. Based on optical spectropolarimetry with FORS1 at the VLT we find a continuum polarization which ranges from 2.2 % at 8300A to 7.5 % at 3600A. Similar amounts of linear polarization are found for the broad emission lines, while the narrow lines are not polarized. The position angle of the polarization is independent of the wavelength and found to be perpendicular to the orientation of the extended [OIII] emission cone of this galaxy. Within the standard model of Seyfert nuclei the observations can be well understood assuming that this AGN is observed at an inclination angle where the nucleus is partially obscured and seen mainly indirectly in the light scattered by dust clouds within or above the torus and the illuminated inner edge of the dust torus itself. Hence we conclude that ESO 323-G077 is a borderline Seyfert 1 galaxy which can provide important information on the geometric properties of active nuclei

Implications of financial sector consolidation

Bank mergers ; Consolidation and merger of corporations